


Legend of Lup: Fire

by timeforlupsopinion (jazzhandslazuli)



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, i'll add more characters to the list when they appear but pre much everyone will play a role, lup is the avatar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-03
Updated: 2018-01-03
Packaged: 2019-02-27 19:51:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13255419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jazzhandslazuli/pseuds/timeforlupsopinion
Summary: Fire. Air. Water. Earth. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. Knowing this weakness could mean the end of their reign, the Fire Nation had the Avatar killed. And again.Somewhere, deep in the Earth Kingdom, a pair of twins discover a power greater than they could ever imagine, and the Spirit of the Avatar is born again-- and so is the Fire Nation's quest to destroy her.





	Legend of Lup: Fire

**Author's Note:**

> yep

The most important thing for Lup and Taako was being seen as assets and not liabilities. 

“Lulu, we’re gonna need more salt when we get into town,” said Taako, sprinkling the last of it into the pot and stirring it with a wave of his hand. Lup grumbled.

“Again?” she asked. “How much are these guys eating?” She adds it to the grocery list she’s working on. 

It’s early morning, the sun just starting to glint on the horizon, and the two of them are on breakfast duty. Lup throws her hand towards the fire, and a few bright sparks shoot off. A few caravan guards, watching them, give a little impressed gasp. She wasn’t a firebender, by any stretch of the imagination, but she knew how to put on a show, and for desperate travellers, any type of entertainment is good entertainment. Sometimes, the difference between sleeping in an inn and sleeping on the street was impressing the right person with fireworks. That was one of their assets. 

They hand out breakfast after a few minutes, and Lup plops down next to her brother. Soup wasn’t exactly breakfast food, and wasn’t quite the twins’ best work, but they have little to work with little until they get into town. Their companions don’t seem to notice, the meal too warm and comforting for them to notice the root vegetables weren’t quite the ones their grandmothers would have used. The caravaners, five of them, talk among themselves. 

Lup eyes them over. “We get into town today,” she whispers. “Are we ditching these guys or no? The pay is decent enough we could keep them around a while, they seem nice enough.”

Taako casts a suspicious glance over the rest of the caravan. But then, he casts suspicious glances over everyone who isn’t Lup. “I don’t think we should stay in the same place for too long,” he says. “I know they pay good, but… something about them doesn’t sit right with me. I can’t explain it but… I think we should drop ‘em.”

Lup glances them over, shrugs. “I’m ready to motor whenever you are, bro.” Better not to get too comfortable, or wear out their welcome anyway. 

“We should be in town by mid-afternoon,” says the caravan driver, at large to the group. “It’s a pretty safe town, as far as marauders and bandits go.” He looks over at the twins, then, and seems to debate something with himself for a second. “But, uh, it is a Fire Nation controlled settlement, kids, and earthbending is strictly prohibited.”

“So don’t go getting us in any trouble,” adds one of the caravaners, with a growl, glaring at the two of them. 

Lup rolls her eyes and shifts her feet a little, and suddenly the patch of earth the man was sitting on falls out from beneath him. He squarks and spills the soup all over himself, and the other travellers dissolve into laughter.

“Nice,” says Taako, only loud enough for Lup to hear. They high five behind their backs. Lup smiles at the driver. 

“Thanks for the heads up,” she says. “We promise to stay out of your hair.”

 

“So I think it goes without saying that that’s a no on staying in town?” says Taako. They’re in the caravan, the thrum of wheels against earth rocking them gently. Taako plays with a bracelet made of stone, pulling it thinner and bending it into shapes idly in his hands. Maybe in part to savour the little bending he can do before they enter the no-fly zone, maybe just to calm his nerves. 

“Oh, yeah, hell no,” says Lup. “We’ll spend the night and then ship off before dawn. I don’t like this any more than you do.” 

The other travellers watch them with varying levels of worry, to straight up malice from the guy from earlier, teeth almost bared as he glared at them. 

Lup squeezes Taako’s hand. “How’s your shirt, my man?” she says aloud, smirking a little. “Almost dry? It’s a shame you slipped, huh?”

“Just keep your mouths shut and _that_ under wraps,” he nods at Taako’s restless bending. “Or you won’t live to see what they’ll do to you in a Fire Nation prison.” 

Taako scoffs. “Yeah, we’re kids but we’re not stupid,” he says. “We know how to keep a low profile.” They make it their business to appear more confident than they feel.

 

They arrive in town with no more decorum than the sudden halt of wheels. Taako sighs and slaps the stone in his hands against his arm, and it curls into a band, tight and immovable around his wrist. He and Lup jump out of the caravan and disappear into the throng of a bustling market before anyone can get a word in edgewise.

Lup’s already mentally editing her checklist as they walk through the market. “No fresh stuff,” she says. “Cause we won’t eat it all and we don’t know when we’ll next be in a caravan.”

“Natch,” says Taako. They pass a small group of Fire Nation soldiers, and they keep their head bowed, hood up obscuring their faces. No one ever looks twice at a couple of kids, but you can never be too careful. “Where are we staying? Cause I think if we just slept on the street it’d be pretty suss. But I don’t want to run into those caravan guys again. I don’t trust ‘em.”

“I don’t know, this town looks too small to have more than one inn,” says Lup. “We’ll figure it out when we get there. You need new shoes, by the way, and we have a bit of cash right now.”

Taako looked down and wiggled the one toe sticking out the end of his shoe. “I….. don’t think that’ll be necessary anymore.” Lup met his sheepish look with wide eyes. 

“What did you do?” she says. Taako opens the satchel at his hips just wide enough so Lup could peer in, at a pair of shoes she vaguely recognised as belonging to one of the caravaners. “Taako!”

“He’s not gonna miss them!” Taako protested. “He spent the whole last week bragging about his new fancy boots and his old ones weren’t even fucking old. I took them a week ago and he still hasn’t noticed. And even if he does, we’ll be long gone before they can do anything about it.”

Lup stares at him for a few moments, and shakes her head. “I am so… proud, to call you my brother,” she says. “But if we get caught because of this, I’m gonna fucking kill you.”

“When have I ever gotten caught?” 

 

They’re so careful. Every day from the moment their aunt first taught them how to move earth with their mind they’ve been grinding, working, perfecting their craft until it was second nature to them, and they feel so clumsy doing even ordinary tasks without their bending. But they do it. They’re so careful. They don’t get caught. They finish their shop just as the sun sets. 

Taako runs his hands up and down his arms, shivering a little in the evening air. “What if we just sneak out of town and bend us a tent somewhere where we won’t get caught?” Asks Taako. 

“It’s risky,” says Lup. But so was sleeping on the street. So was everything two homeless twelve year olds did. And they certainly didn’t want to run into those caravaners knowing that Taako had their shoes. “Let’s do it.”

There’s a few Fire Nation soldiers patrolling the city gates, but the walls aren’t high, and Lup and Taako pull each other over it easily. They run under the cover of darkness until they find a grove of trees about half an hour out from town. Lup lies down on the ground, staring at the sky and the umbrage of trees. “This feels about good,” she says, out of breath. “Were we followed?”

Taako squints his eyes, searching the path they came from. “I don’t think so.”

“Excellent,” says Lup, and she pulls the earth over her like a little cave built for one. 

“Scooch over, tent hog.” Taako shifts the earth to accommodate him beside her. Their shelter isn’t much, but it staves off the wind, and they have enough blankets in their packs that it’s not totally uncomfortable. They’ve stayed in worse places, and at the very least they’re together. 

 

Lup’s on the very edge of sleep when she hears voices. At least half a dozen, loud, aggressive. Her heart races and she sits up, tilting her head to try and hear better. “Taako?” She says, her voice low. He shifts beside her, and they peer out the opening of their makeshift tent. The moonlight is dim, and it’s hard to distinguish shadows, until suddenly there’s bright light. Fire. Casting light on its casters, a group of firebending soldiers. They see the twins at the same time, and with a shout, start running towards their camp. 

Lup and Taako scramble back as far as they can into the tent and pull up a wall of rock over the opening, plunging them into total darkness, breaths short and panicked as they strain to listen. 

A sudden loud crack to their right, a fireball slamming into the rock that leaves their ears ringing. Not enough to hurt them, but they could feel the sizeable damage to their shelter. Lup backs as far into the opposite corner as she can, breathing heavily, trying not to make a sound. 

“Earthbenders!” They hear a shout. “Show yourselves. Earthbending is forbidden in all Fire Nation territories and we have orders to place you both into immediate confinement.”

“Confinement my ass,” Taako mutters, and suddenly he disappears into the ground, the Earth forming back around him. Lup waits, two seconds, and then she hears the sound of rock outside, being thrown around, and the shouts of surprised guards. 

And that’s her cue. She kicks out the end of the tent, sending gravel flying, and she somersaults into the battlefield and sends a shaft of rock into the face of one of the soldiers with a satisfying crunch of what she hopes is a broken nose. A soldier throws a ball of flame. She blocks with a slab of earth that melts on impact. Two more soldiers try to catch her off balance and run behind her. She drops the earth around them and knocks them to the ground. 

“Stop! Stop resisting or I will kill the brat!” 

Taako has his own circle of downed enemies, but there were just so many of them, and they can train as hard as they want, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re not even five feet tall. Taako kicked and struggled for purchase, held aloft in the arms of one of the soldiers, the soldier’s hand braced threateningly against his neck. The soldier glares at Lup. “You’re under arrest but you don’t have to die for this. Stop resisting.”

“Lup, don’t.” Taako’s voice is gasping and croaky with a hand around his neck, but he grits his teeth, determined. “I’ll be okay, don’t give up.”

Lup’s fingers twitch. She wants nothing more than to bury that bastard alive, but any hint of earthbending and he could kill Taako instantly. Lup breathes heavily and stops, holding her hands up in surrender. Immediately a soldier clasps some kind of metal restraints over her hands and hoists her into the air, removing her from all contact with the ground, and her bending. 

She locks eyes with Taako. “We're gonna be okay,” she promises. 

 

Their prison is made entirely of dull metal and wood. Nothing bendable. Taako’s heart races. Disorientated by the darkness, he has no idea how far away they are from… any town. And he can’t bend, and this is just about the shittiest thing that has ever happened to them since their aunt died. The guard holding Taako frees his bonds and releases him into the cell in silence. Taako rubs feeling back into his fingers and scowls. 

The guard holding Lup is not nearly as accommodating. “You'll stay here until the morning,” he spits. He drops her, far too aggressively, but he keeps a grip on her upper arm. She stumbles, knees buckling, arm twisting in his grip, and she hisses in pain. “Where you'll be taken somewhere where you and your kind can't cause anymore trouble.”

“Pretty pathetic that you get your power trips from beating up kids,” says Lup. He releases her bonds and she immediately throws a fist in his face. The soldier grunts and glowers at her, smacking her hard with the back of his hand and throwing her into the cell with a heavy thud. Taako sees red. He runs at the guard, uncertain what he would do but certain he would do something, but the door swings shut and he's left pounding helplessly at the metal with his fists. “Fuck.”

“Fuck is about right, my man,” says Lup. She sits up. Her face is red and her lip is busted, and she runs her tongue along the place where it split and grimaces. “We've done goofed, it seems.”

Taako sits down beside her and pulls her hand into his. “I think those caravan guys ratted us out. In hindsight I probably shouldn't have taken those shoes.” He tries to laugh, but it comes out hollow.

“Yeah, this whole thing is basically your fault,” says Lup, punching her brother lightly in the arm. There’s no malice behind her words or her attack, only resignation. They’re both trying, but this is by far the worst scrape they’ve ever been in. “I don’t know what to do this time, ‘Ko.” He shrugs and runs his hand over his wrist, hand catching on his bracelet. Oh, shit! His eyes widen. 

“Fuck, then I guess it’s up to me, Taako, to save the day as always.” He pretends to sigh and rolls his sleeve up. The stone bracelet peels away, forming a long, pointed pin. 

Lup’s eyes widen, and a grin forms to match his own. “How did you manage to get that past them? My pockets were looted.”

“Another Taako original.” He leaps to his feet triumphant and steps over to the door, and Lup follows quickly behind. He’s picked locks before, but it’s not his strongest asset. It takes a few minutes to bend the rock into the right shapes.

“It needs to be thinner,” says Lup.

“Well next time you remember the magic lock-picking bracelet and then you can pick the lock how you want to,” says Taako impatiently. 

“Okay, or eat a dick and gimme that one.” The pick snaps in the lock and he curses. He bends it out again. At least earthbending offered second chances. 

The door opens, suddenly, a Fire Nation soldier bursting his way in. Taako falls back against the floor. 

“What are you two doing?” He growls. He notices the pick stuck in the lock, and rips it out furiously. He turns his eyes onto Taako, and picks him up off the ground, throwing him against the wall with a hard thud that knocks the breath out of him. Oh god, oh god this guy is strong. There’s a hand on his throat. Taako gasps for breath and tries to kick away.

“You had your chance to do this the easy way,” the soldier says. “But I can’t have you causing trouble in the camp, can I?” 

Distantly, he can tell Lup is shouting, but his ears are ringing and bright spots are dancing across his vision. The soldier lets go, flinging him across the room, and his head hits the wall this a sickening smack.

 

Everything is black for a moment, and then everything is red, and so, so hot. It takes a second for Taako to focus and breathe and register what’s going on. It’s fire. Everything in the room except for himself utterly consumed in roaring flame. It dies quickly, and there’s Lup, one hand gripping the shirt of the guard, and the other balled in a fist. But it’s… not Lup. Her eyes are pure white and glowing, and her fist bathed in flame. She grits her teeth. “ **You’re going to regret hurting my brother**.” It’s her voice, except it isn’t, except it’s powerful. The soldier’s face is red raw and already blistering, eyes wide in terror. She throws him against the wall harder than Taako thought would be possible, and he doesn’t move. 

Lup leaves the cell, and Taako follows on unsteady, shaking legs. “Lup?” His voice is dry and cracked. “Lup what the fuck is going on? Lup?” She can’t hear him, and he’s too far behind to reach her. She reaches the end of the hallway and blasts the door open almost effortlessly. A gang of soldiers on the other side jump as the door opens. They throw balls of fire that fizzle uselessly when they hit her, and in a minute she has them piled in a corner, burned and moaning.

Taako finally catches up outside the facility, and grabs her shoulder. “Lup, stop!” She turns back, eyes bright and teeth bared. “Lup it’s me, Taako!” She blinks a few times, and falls against him. He catches her and pulls her up. She blinks up at him and… her eyes are wide and hazel and hers. Taako breathes a sigh of relief “Oh my god, Taako!” She throws her arms around him. “I thought you were dead for a hot second there, bro.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re not far off.” His voice is shaky. “What the fuck was that?”

“What the fuck was what?” she asks. A siren blares behind them from the prison, and Lup jumps. “Can we figure it out later? We gotta go.”

Taako hesitates, for a moment, staring at his sister who just a minute ago almost burned down a building, just a minute ago was… possessed, or something, now turning around acting like nothing happened. What the fuck did that even mean? She yanks his hand. “Taako!” 

“Right, right.” He unfreezes, and they run. 

**Author's Note:**

> It's collaborate-teen, we're better together, and I'm better when you yell at me to update over at timeforlupsopinion dot tumblr dot com.


End file.
